This paper focuses on dualities in both the process and outcomes of participation in work. First, the process of participation in work activities and interactions draws on contributions of both individuals and the social world in ways that are variably interdependent, that is, relational. The affordances of workplaces shape the array of…

This paper reports research into the student experience of learning through discussions in a blended environment. Third year engineering students studying e-commerce engaged in both face-to-face discussions and online asynchronous discussions as key aspects of their learning experience. Adopting a quantitative methodology, questionnaires were…

To extend research on fundamental motivational orientations into a new domain, we explored the achievement (positive) and avoidance (negative) orientations of formal organization-based mentors and proteges as joint predictors of personal learning experienced by both parties. We also examined the extent of mentoring functions provided by mentors as…

In this article, the author relates her experience during her interview with Indian poet Simon Ortiz in the summer of 1978. She recalls how she had been amazed at how down-to-earth Ortiz had been despite his achievements. Ortiz was an important writer and has contributed much to native Indian literature with his essays, poetry, and short stories.…

A recent development of phenomenography, variation theory, is illustrated using a video recorded case of learning. From a variation theory perspective, to learn is to be aware of critical aspects of what is learned. The way we experience or understand something depends on what aspects we are aware of and can discern simultaneously. The possibility…

The purpose of this research was to examine the way three high school students perceived and experienced a choral composition they were learning to perform. This case study, conducted over a period of five months, chronicled the experiences and perceptions of three students from a large midwestern high school mixed choir as they learned to perform…

In this article, the author describes the difference between debriefing and critiquing. Critiquing art entails examining the use of the art elements and the principles of design. Describing what one sees as well as how the work is organized is a major part of critiquing. Determining what the piece is communicating and whether the piece is…

This paper reports on efforts to access four-year-old children's perspectives on their learning experiences. Interviews with children in various contexts were carried out using photographs of recent activities to stimulate discussion and recall. Small group interviews with a researcher or teacher; one-to-one interviews between researcher and…

Thirty features of the learning experience as perceived by a sample of 3,300 students in 11 secondary schools in the United Kingdom were analysed to see how far students positively rated the classroom environment, challenge in lessons, learning styles, teaching approaches, relationships with teachers, and awareness of key skills. These data are…

This study was conducted in a lighthouse school with a long and successful history of restructuring. In this article we describe our (surprising) impressions of shadowing Jake, one of the highest achieving students in the school. We present a researcher's account of Jake's classroom experience over the first four periods of a single day and an…

The programmes offered by both institutions are geared to the application of current technology. All the University of Derby programmes, including the BSc(Hons) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Higher Technical Institute Diploma in Electrical Engineering, are accredited in the UK at Incorporated Engineer level by the…

How does one count the most organic and authentic moments where an adult educator helped facilitate a learner's epiphany? One minute all the letters on the blackboard seemed jumbled and the words were unidentifiable, and then suddenly, with a blink of an eye, all of the letters now make words that have meaning and enter the mind to make deeper…

Science instructors sometimes avoid inquiry-based activities due to limited classroom time. Inquiry takes time, as students choose problems, design experiments, obtain materials, conduct investigations, gather data, communicate results, and discuss their experiments. While there are no quick solutions to time concerns, the 5E learning cycle seeks…

Experiential learning is an educational tool in which students "learn by doing." Briefly stated, "debriefing is the processing of the learning experience from which the learners are to draw the lessons to be learned" (Dennehy, Sims, & Collins, 1998, p. 9). Kolb's (1984) model provides a four-stage framework: concrete experience, reflective…

Brain development is self-organizing in that the unique structure of each brain evolves in unpredictable ways through recursive modifications of synaptic networks. In this article, I review mechanisms of neural change in real time and over development, and I argue that change at each of these time scales embodies principles of self-organizing…